Gender Studies: Feminisms, Power & Social Change
Theory, Movements & Practice in South Asia and Beyond
A rigorous introduction to feminist theory, the political economy of gender, care work, law and rights, caste-gender intersections, and development practice — anchored in South Asian scholarship and global feminist thought. Built for practitioners, researchers, and anyone who wants to understand how gender structures power. Pairs well with our MEL course for gender-responsive evaluation.
16 Modules
75 Terms
South Asia Focus
Free Forever
"Gender is not a natural fact but a complex political system that assigns rights and restricts freedoms on the basis of sex."— Nivedita Menon, Seeing Like a Feminist (2012)
Course Papers Collection
AI Study Companion
Why Study Gender?
Gender is not a personal attribute. It is a system of power — one that shapes who does which labour, who owns property, who speaks in public, who survives violence, and who gets to define what counts as knowledge. Understanding how this system works, and where it can be challenged, is foundational to any serious development practice.
Theoretical Depth
Butler, Crenshaw, Connell, Agarwal, Kabeer, Menon, Chakravarti — primary texts and core arguments, not summaries.
South Asia Grounded
Caste-gender intersections, personal laws, the Indian women's movement, NFHS data — the scholarship that actually speaks to your context.
Law & Policy Fluency
PWDVA, POSH, the 73rd Amendment, the Vishaka guidelines — understand what the law says, what it misses, and how courts have interpreted it.
Practice-Ready
Gender mainstreaming tools, care work measurement via survey instruments, GBV programme design — theory connected to what you actually do in the field.
Gender Studies Lexicon
75 core terms across feminist theory, political economy, law, and development practice — with definitions, cross-references, and South Asian applications.
Browse Interactive Lexicon
Download Excel Lexicon (Coming Soon)
Meet the Founders
ImpactMojo is built by development practitioners who wanted rigorous Development Know-How at zero cost — for everyone.
Development economist and lawyer with two decades of field and policy experience across South Asia. Varna's work spans agricultural economics, feminist political economy, social protection, and rights-based development. She writes and teaches at the intersection of theory and practice.
Development practitioner and educator with deep experience in gender, livelihoods, and institutional capacity building across India. Vandana brings programme design, training, and organisational development expertise to ImpactMojo's learning frameworks.
Practice the Material & Continue Learning
Every flagship course is part of a wider open-source learning network. The cards below cross-link this course with hands-on labs, AI study companions, foundational 101 decks, book summaries, reference handouts, live dojos, and premium tools.
Ask the deck questions, get topic summaries, and generate study aids in your own pace.
Free 100-slide foundational primers that pair well with this flagship:
31 development-economics BookCompanion summaries with key concepts and field application notes:
85 print-optimised handouts across 10 tracks — methods, ethics, frameworks, lexicons, quick-reference cards.
56 weekly dojo sessions in the South Asian dev-practitioner cohort — case clinics, paper discussions, live Q&A.
9 premium tools (live + coming soon) plus 1:1 coaching, cohort access, and certificates. Sliding-scale pricing.